Shi Yan Ming
Encyclopedia
Shi Yan Ming is a 34th generation Shaolin warrior monk
, teacher and actor, best known as the founder of USA Shaolin Temple. Trained at the Shaolin Temple in the People's Republic of China (PRC)
since the age of five, Shi Yan Ming defected to the United States in 1992, before opening the USA Shaolin Temple in Manhattan
, where he has taught hundreds of students, including numerous celebrities. He has made various media appearances in television, film and print, including National Geographic, PBS
, History, Time magazine, and the 1999 American samurai action film, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
.
on Chinese New Year's
, February 13, 1964, the year of the Dragon
, the seventh of nine children. His father grew up in a family so poor that they were essentially homeless, and begged for food door-to-door. Duan's father, who never went to school, slept under a wood burning stove, or would dig a hole in a stack of wheat for warmth. Despite these hardships, he taught himself to be a very literate reader, writer and calligrapher. Duan's mother's family was slightly better off financially. As was typical, she was not educated either, had her feet bound, and was raised solely to be a mother and housewife. Duan's parents eventually acquired jobs for the Chinese government under Mao, and worked underground as telex
operators.
Prior to his birth, two of Duan's older brothers and one older sister died of starvation in Mao Zedong
's "Great Leap Forward
" in the late 1950s. Duan himself almost died when he was approximately two or three years old, prompting his parents to spend all their money on numerous doctors, and his father to sell his special calligraphy pen. Doctors eventually gave up on him, and after thinking their seventh child had died, his parents wrapped him in blankets, intending to throw him away, before being stopped by an acupuncturist outside their village who saw them crying, and performed acupuncture on the infant Gen Shan, who promptly recovered. Yan Ming believes the man was a Boddhisattva sent by Buddha
to save his life.
In 1969, the five-year-old Duan's Buddhist parents, still worried about his health, took him to the 1,500 year-old Shaolin Temple, the only remains of which after repeated destruction by warring dynasties and the current government were the foundation and some walls. (The temple as it is known today was reconstructed around the turn of the 21st century.) As this was in the middle of the Cultural Revolution
, the familiar red and yellow robes and shaved heads were also not present among the monks, and would not be until approximately 1980, after the Cultural Revolution ended. Since there had not been an abbot at the temple in about 300 years, Duan was taken to the head monk, Shi Xing Zheng (who would later be appointed abbot in 1986). Shi Xing Zheng, whom Duan addressed as "Shigong" ("Grandmaster") or "Shifu Shifu" ("master's master"), looked at the young Duan and accepted him into the temple, where his parents were happy to leave him. As soon as he was accepted in the temple, which was populated by about 16 or 17 monks, all of them older than Duan (most of them in their seventies), his name was changed to Shi Yan Ming. The name is derived from "Shi", as in Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, a family name that Buddhist monks of this tradition take in order to denote that they follow Buddha, "Yan", which denotes the "34th generation" at the Shaolin Temple, and "Ming", which means "perpetual", as in the infinite cycle of the Dharma wheel. Shi says that his "kung fu uncles" at the temple were very loving, and took care of him as his own parents would, though they did not live there all the time, for fear of marauding gangs of Mao's Red Guard, and therefore, Shi saw his parents often.
Shi immediately started learning kung fu, Chan Buddhism and acupuncture from his masters, Liu Xin Yi and Shen Ping An, who were Shaolin disciples living outside the temple, rather than monks. Because of the open nature of the temple, where people could come and go easily, he says he learned to read people. Despite his training, Shi also amused himself by playing pranks on his masters, who would punish him either with beatings, or by making him do the horse stance
until his legs were numb and swollen, or making do headstands until the blood draining into his head caused pain. Shi's daily routine consisted of awakening at 4:30 am to practice for two hours, followed by a breakfast of steamed tofu and vegetables, prayer, meditation or relaxation for an hour, and then another three and a half hours of practice. This would be followed by more prayer, Buddhism studies, and cleaning or other Temple work. Although Shaolin monks do not necessarily follow the practice of other monks who do not eat past noon, those at the temple would eat a lunch of noodles, rice or mantau at 11:30 am, out of respect to monks visiting from other temples. After an hour of relaxation, Shi would practice and pray again from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm, followed by dinner, more relaxation, and more practice until 10:00 pm. From then until 4:00 am the monks would work in shifts to check the temple's incense. The monks slept on a piece of wood with a blanket on it, sometimes using their clothes for pillows, which Shi says is good for the back, compared to American beds, which he says are too comfortable. Although Shi met his Buddhism Shifu, Shi Yong Quian, almost immediately after entering the temple, he did not begin seriously studying with him until he was about 14 or 15. Because the temple did not have running water, the monks had to transport it from mountain rivers just outside the temple, draw it from a well, and collect rainwater. When the temple acquired running water in 1986, the monks were dissatisfied, because under the system of feng shui
, digging up the ground and laying in pipes was, as Shi puts it, akin to "cutting your veins out". During the cold winter months, bathing was restricted to washing selected body parts, rather than immersion in or under water. Even today the temple only has cold water.
Unlike other Buddhist monks, Shaolin can eat meat and drink alcohol, a privilege that originated with a decree from Emperor Li Shi Min during the Tang Dynasty
, because the Shaolin had aided him. Before the temple opened up in the early 1980, the monks could eat meat inside, though they ceased this practice after other monks began visiting following its reconstruction.
In 1980, a young Jet Li
arrived at the temple to shoot his feature film debut, Shaolin Temple. Though Shi barely noticed him at the time, the film's 1982 release was a major turning point for the temple, which experienced a significant increase in tourism. This in turn resulted in more positive attention to the temple by the Chinese government, which rebuilt the building, and in a change to the monks' daily routine, so that they could accommodate the tourists. Around this time, when Shi was 16, his parents, who held stressful jobs and were heavy smokers, died of lung cancer
within six month of each other. Shi would then take care of his younger brother, while his older brothers would take care of the younger siblings, with whom Shi is still in contact today.
In 1985, Shi won the 65 kg (147 lb.) championship in the Xian National Sparring Competition. He also won the championship in the annual Shaolin Disciples Competition three years in a row (1988–1990), and was vice-coach of the Shaolin Temple Fighting Monks at Henan.
In 1992, Shi, who had won many national martial arts competitions, was chosen to be among a group of select Shaolin monks invited by the American Kung Fu Association to tour the United States, the first such tour for the Shaolin, to spread the knowledge of Shaolin Kung Fu.
, and not Shi's Mandarin, the monk wrote down his communications, since both dialects employ the same characters
. The restaurant staff helped Shi phone a friend in New York City, who had someone pick up Shi, who hid in a basement for a week, eating only bread and cereal, while the news media were reporting his escape. After a week, he traveled to New York.
Shi's defection was motivated in part because he disagreed with the monastery's strictures, saying, "In the temple, monks have 250 rules. Two hundred fifty! Just think of that! You cannot drink. You cannot eat spices. You cannot drink bottled water. You cannot look at a woman. That's just crazy. It's the 21st century, you know?"
Choosing New York to be his new base of operations in order to spread the message of Buddhism and Shaolin kung fu because he saw it as the "capital of the world", Shi opened the first USA Shaolin Temple at 96 Bowery Street in Chinatown
in December 1994. Because there was no heat, electricity or hot water, Shi would tape flashlights to the walls for light, teaching up to 18 hours a day in order to attract students. At night he would wear several pairs of socks on his feet to stay warm, and accumulated hundreds of pairs of unwashed socks due to his initial inability to wash clothes without water. He would also perform in Chinese restaurants to raise money for children and the elderly, gave free lessons, and spoke of philosophy in Open Centre on Spring Street. In 1996 he moved the USA Shaolin Temple to a third floor loft at 678 Broadway in the East Village
. In late 2006, after its lease expired, the temple was relocated to its current location in a second floor, high-ceilinged loft at 446 Broadway, in Chinatown, where he teaches authentic Shaolin martial arts and Chan Buddhism in two-hour classes from 5am to 9pm, every day, to nearly 500 students, who have included notables such as Wesley Snipes
, Rosie Perez
, Bokeem Woodbine
, RZA
, Jim Jarmusch
, Bjork
and Tricky
.
In June 1995, Shi traveled to Toronto, Canada to perform with a delegation of his brother Shaolin monks, headed by Great Master Shi Yongxin, who were sent on tour to Canada. In 1999 he returned to China with his students to help build relations between China and the United States. In late 2001 he returned to the Henan Province with 40 of his students for a martial arts festival.
The USA Shaolin Temple has six international satellite branches in Austria, South Africa, Trinidad, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. In 2010 Shi and the USA Shaolin Temple purchased over 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of land in Middletown, Delaware County, New York
, where he intends to build a new Shaolin Temple.
, as a young monk, Shi Yan Ming learned to break rocks with his skull, deflect blades with his skin, and sleep while hanging upside down from a tree branch. By the age of 17, according to Time
magazine and The New Yorker
, he could deflect the tip of a spear with his neck, sleep standing on one leg, and dangle a 50-pound (23 kg) weight from his scrotum, a practice that helped train him to withstand a full-force blow to the groin. He can also lick red-hot iron shovels. According to Shi, since being taken by his parents to the Shaolin Temple, he has never experienced any health problems as he did as an infant, and has never been sick.
Shi's punching power has been measured at 772 lbf (3,434 N) of force, while his one-inch punch was measured to have 1.78 vC, more injurious than a 30 mi/h car crash. Among his martial arts specialties are Luohan Quan, Magic Staff and other Shaolin weapons, and hard chi kung.
, which was directed by one of his students, Jim Jarmusch
. He has been profiled on PBS
, and on the History series Stan Lee's Superhumans
. In 2005, National Geographic filmed a documentary on him titled "Kung Fu Monk". He has also worked as a model, and the tourist bureau of his native village, Henan Province, put him on a billboard advertising their most famous native son. He is also depicted performing various styles of kung fu in four giant posters that show him that hang over the entrance to the modern Anhui Guoyang Chudian Branch of the Shaolin Wushu Center, near the Shaolin Temple.
Says Jarmusch, "I love his contradictions. He's so playful and yet he has the potential for incredible physical ferocity." The RZA, producer of and Shi's co-star in the urban kung fu film Z Chronicles, says of Shi, "When I looked at the dailies, he just exploded on the camera. "I'd say, 'Damn Shifu, you're a real live movie star.'"
Shi was among the monks profiled in the 1995 book The Real Shaolin Gongfu of China. In 2006 Rodale Books published Shi's own book, The Shaolin Workout: 28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior's Way.
, and the temple's then-manager, whom he met in 1995. Shi never took the Shaolin celibacy vows, as he entered the Shaolin Temple at the age of five. Explaining his eschewing of celibacy, Shi remarks, "I'm too handsome for that."
Warrior monk
The term Warrior monk may refer to:* Sōhei, a type of Japanese warrior* Knights Templar, Knights Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights, warriors during the Crusades* Shaolin Monastery, a Chinese monastery renowned for monks who were experts in the martial arts...
, teacher and actor, best known as the founder of USA Shaolin Temple. Trained at the Shaolin Temple in the People's Republic of China (PRC)
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
since the age of five, Shi Yan Ming defected to the United States in 1992, before opening the USA Shaolin Temple in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, where he has taught hundreds of students, including numerous celebrities. He has made various media appearances in television, film and print, including National Geographic, PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, History, Time magazine, and the 1999 American samurai action film, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a 1999 American crime action film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Forest Whitaker stars as the title character, the mysterious "Ghost Dog", a hitman in the employ of the Mafia, who follows the ancient code of the samurai as outlined in the book of Yamamoto...
.
Early life
Shi Yan Ming was born Duan Gen Shan in Zhumadian Village in Henan Province, People's Republic of China (PRC)People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
on Chinese New Year's
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
, February 13, 1964, the year of the Dragon
Dragon (zodiac)
The Dragon , is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar, and the only animal that is legendary...
, the seventh of nine children. His father grew up in a family so poor that they were essentially homeless, and begged for food door-to-door. Duan's father, who never went to school, slept under a wood burning stove, or would dig a hole in a stack of wheat for warmth. Despite these hardships, he taught himself to be a very literate reader, writer and calligrapher. Duan's mother's family was slightly better off financially. As was typical, she was not educated either, had her feet bound, and was raised solely to be a mother and housewife. Duan's parents eventually acquired jobs for the Chinese government under Mao, and worked underground as telex
Telex
Telex may refer to:* Telex , , a communications network** Teleprinter, the device used on the above network* Telex , a Belgian pop group...
operators.
Prior to his birth, two of Duan's older brothers and one older sister died of starvation in Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
's "Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...
" in the late 1950s. Duan himself almost died when he was approximately two or three years old, prompting his parents to spend all their money on numerous doctors, and his father to sell his special calligraphy pen. Doctors eventually gave up on him, and after thinking their seventh child had died, his parents wrapped him in blankets, intending to throw him away, before being stopped by an acupuncturist outside their village who saw them crying, and performed acupuncture on the infant Gen Shan, who promptly recovered. Yan Ming believes the man was a Boddhisattva sent by Buddha
Buddha
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
to save his life.
In China
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
, the familiar red and yellow robes and shaved heads were also not present among the monks, and would not be until approximately 1980, after the Cultural Revolution ended. Since there had not been an abbot at the temple in about 300 years, Duan was taken to the head monk, Shi Xing Zheng (who would later be appointed abbot in 1986). Shi Xing Zheng, whom Duan addressed as "Shigong" ("Grandmaster") or "Shifu Shifu" ("master's master"), looked at the young Duan and accepted him into the temple, where his parents were happy to leave him. As soon as he was accepted in the temple, which was populated by about 16 or 17 monks, all of them older than Duan (most of them in their seventies), his name was changed to Shi Yan Ming. The name is derived from "Shi", as in Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, a family name that Buddhist monks of this tradition take in order to denote that they follow Buddha, "Yan", which denotes the "34th generation" at the Shaolin Temple, and "Ming", which means "perpetual", as in the infinite cycle of the Dharma wheel. Shi says that his "kung fu uncles" at the temple were very loving, and took care of him as his own parents would, though they did not live there all the time, for fear of marauding gangs of Mao's Red Guard, and therefore, Shi saw his parents often.
Shi immediately started learning kung fu, Chan Buddhism and acupuncture from his masters, Liu Xin Yi and Shen Ping An, who were Shaolin disciples living outside the temple, rather than monks. Because of the open nature of the temple, where people could come and go easily, he says he learned to read people. Despite his training, Shi also amused himself by playing pranks on his masters, who would punish him either with beatings, or by making him do the horse stance
Horse stance
The horse stance is an important posture in Asian martial arts and takes its name from the position assumed when riding a horse. It is called mǎbù in Chinese, in Japanese, kekuda or kuda-kuda in Malay, asvavadivu in Malayalam, and juchum seogi or annun seogi in Korean...
until his legs were numb and swollen, or making do headstands until the blood draining into his head caused pain. Shi's daily routine consisted of awakening at 4:30 am to practice for two hours, followed by a breakfast of steamed tofu and vegetables, prayer, meditation or relaxation for an hour, and then another three and a half hours of practice. This would be followed by more prayer, Buddhism studies, and cleaning or other Temple work. Although Shaolin monks do not necessarily follow the practice of other monks who do not eat past noon, those at the temple would eat a lunch of noodles, rice or mantau at 11:30 am, out of respect to monks visiting from other temples. After an hour of relaxation, Shi would practice and pray again from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm, followed by dinner, more relaxation, and more practice until 10:00 pm. From then until 4:00 am the monks would work in shifts to check the temple's incense. The monks slept on a piece of wood with a blanket on it, sometimes using their clothes for pillows, which Shi says is good for the back, compared to American beds, which he says are too comfortable. Although Shi met his Buddhism Shifu, Shi Yong Quian, almost immediately after entering the temple, he did not begin seriously studying with him until he was about 14 or 15. Because the temple did not have running water, the monks had to transport it from mountain rivers just outside the temple, draw it from a well, and collect rainwater. When the temple acquired running water in 1986, the monks were dissatisfied, because under the system of feng shui
Feng shui
Feng shui ' is a Chinese system of geomancy believed to use the laws of both Heaven and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive qi. The original designation for the discipline is Kan Yu ....
, digging up the ground and laying in pipes was, as Shi puts it, akin to "cutting your veins out". During the cold winter months, bathing was restricted to washing selected body parts, rather than immersion in or under water. Even today the temple only has cold water.
Unlike other Buddhist monks, Shaolin can eat meat and drink alcohol, a privilege that originated with a decree from Emperor Li Shi Min during the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, because the Shaolin had aided him. Before the temple opened up in the early 1980, the monks could eat meat inside, though they ceased this practice after other monks began visiting following its reconstruction.
In 1980, a young Jet Li
Jet Li
The fame gained by his sports winnings led to a career as a martial arts film star, beginning in mainland China and then continuing into Hong Kong. Li acquired his screen name in 1982 in the Philippines when a publicity company thought his real name was too hard to pronounce...
arrived at the temple to shoot his feature film debut, Shaolin Temple. Though Shi barely noticed him at the time, the film's 1982 release was a major turning point for the temple, which experienced a significant increase in tourism. This in turn resulted in more positive attention to the temple by the Chinese government, which rebuilt the building, and in a change to the monks' daily routine, so that they could accommodate the tourists. Around this time, when Shi was 16, his parents, who held stressful jobs and were heavy smokers, died of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
within six month of each other. Shi would then take care of his younger brother, while his older brothers would take care of the younger siblings, with whom Shi is still in contact today.
In 1985, Shi won the 65 kg (147 lb.) championship in the Xian National Sparring Competition. He also won the championship in the annual Shaolin Disciples Competition three years in a row (1988–1990), and was vice-coach of the Shaolin Temple Fighting Monks at Henan.
In 1992, Shi, who had won many national martial arts competitions, was chosen to be among a group of select Shaolin monks invited by the American Kung Fu Association to tour the United States, the first such tour for the Shaolin, to spread the knowledge of Shaolin Kung Fu.
In the United States
After the tour's last show concluded in San Francisco, Shi secretly left his hotel in the middle of the night and escaped in order to defect from China to the United States. Speaking no English, Shi directed a cab driver with hand signals to an unknown destination, but the frustrated driver dropped him off in the middle of nowhere and called the police. Shi showed the police his passport and some newspaper clippings featuring him, so the police requested the driver take him to a Chinese restaurant in order to find someone who could communicate with him. However, since the staff at the restaurant spoke only CantoneseCantonese
Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
, and not Shi's Mandarin, the monk wrote down his communications, since both dialects employ the same characters
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
. The restaurant staff helped Shi phone a friend in New York City, who had someone pick up Shi, who hid in a basement for a week, eating only bread and cereal, while the news media were reporting his escape. After a week, he traveled to New York.
Shi's defection was motivated in part because he disagreed with the monastery's strictures, saying, "In the temple, monks have 250 rules. Two hundred fifty! Just think of that! You cannot drink. You cannot eat spices. You cannot drink bottled water. You cannot look at a woman. That's just crazy. It's the 21st century, you know?"
Choosing New York to be his new base of operations in order to spread the message of Buddhism and Shaolin kung fu because he saw it as the "capital of the world", Shi opened the first USA Shaolin Temple at 96 Bowery Street in Chinatown
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
in December 1994. Because there was no heat, electricity or hot water, Shi would tape flashlights to the walls for light, teaching up to 18 hours a day in order to attract students. At night he would wear several pairs of socks on his feet to stay warm, and accumulated hundreds of pairs of unwashed socks due to his initial inability to wash clothes without water. He would also perform in Chinese restaurants to raise money for children and the elderly, gave free lessons, and spoke of philosophy in Open Centre on Spring Street. In 1996 he moved the USA Shaolin Temple to a third floor loft at 678 Broadway in the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
. In late 2006, after its lease expired, the temple was relocated to its current location in a second floor, high-ceilinged loft at 446 Broadway, in Chinatown, where he teaches authentic Shaolin martial arts and Chan Buddhism in two-hour classes from 5am to 9pm, every day, to nearly 500 students, who have included notables such as Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
, Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez
Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
, Bokeem Woodbine
Bokeem Woodbine
Bokeem Woodbine is an American film and television actor.-Personal life:Woodbine was born in Harlem, New York to an actress mother. He attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York before transferring to the also prestigious LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in the city...
, RZA
RZA
Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known by his stage name RZA , is an American Grammy-winning music producer, multi-instrumentalist, author, emcee, and occasional actor, director, and screenwriter. A prominent figure in Hip Hop, RZA is the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan. He has produced almost...
, Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
, Bjork
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
and Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...
.
In June 1995, Shi traveled to Toronto, Canada to perform with a delegation of his brother Shaolin monks, headed by Great Master Shi Yongxin, who were sent on tour to Canada. In 1999 he returned to China with his students to help build relations between China and the United States. In late 2001 he returned to the Henan Province with 40 of his students for a martial arts festival.
The USA Shaolin Temple has six international satellite branches in Austria, South Africa, Trinidad, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. In 2010 Shi and the USA Shaolin Temple purchased over 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) of land in Middletown, Delaware County, New York
Middletown, Delaware County, New York
Middletown is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 4,051 at the 2000 census.The Town of Middletown is in the southeast part of the county.- History :...
, where he intends to build a new Shaolin Temple.
Abilities
According to The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, as a young monk, Shi Yan Ming learned to break rocks with his skull, deflect blades with his skin, and sleep while hanging upside down from a tree branch. By the age of 17, according to Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, he could deflect the tip of a spear with his neck, sleep standing on one leg, and dangle a 50-pound (23 kg) weight from his scrotum, a practice that helped train him to withstand a full-force blow to the groin. He can also lick red-hot iron shovels. According to Shi, since being taken by his parents to the Shaolin Temple, he has never experienced any health problems as he did as an infant, and has never been sick.
Shi's punching power has been measured at 772 lbf (3,434 N) of force, while his one-inch punch was measured to have 1.78 vC, more injurious than a 30 mi/h car crash. Among his martial arts specialties are Luohan Quan, Magic Staff and other Shaolin weapons, and hard chi kung.
Media appearances
Shi Yan Ming had a small role in the 1999 movie Ghost Dog: The Way of the SamuraiGhost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a 1999 American crime action film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Forest Whitaker stars as the title character, the mysterious "Ghost Dog", a hitman in the employ of the Mafia, who follows the ancient code of the samurai as outlined in the book of Yamamoto...
, which was directed by one of his students, Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
. He has been profiled on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, and on the History series Stan Lee's Superhumans
Stan Lee's Superhumans
Stan Lee's Superhumans is a documentary television series that debuted August 5, 2010 on History. It is hosted by comic book superhero creator Stan Lee and follows contortionist Daniel Browning Smith, "the most flexible man in the world", as he searches the globe for real-life superhumans – people...
. In 2005, National Geographic filmed a documentary on him titled "Kung Fu Monk". He has also worked as a model, and the tourist bureau of his native village, Henan Province, put him on a billboard advertising their most famous native son. He is also depicted performing various styles of kung fu in four giant posters that show him that hang over the entrance to the modern Anhui Guoyang Chudian Branch of the Shaolin Wushu Center, near the Shaolin Temple.
Says Jarmusch, "I love his contradictions. He's so playful and yet he has the potential for incredible physical ferocity." The RZA, producer of and Shi's co-star in the urban kung fu film Z Chronicles, says of Shi, "When I looked at the dailies, he just exploded on the camera. "I'd say, 'Damn Shifu, you're a real live movie star.'"
Shi was among the monks profiled in the 1995 book The Real Shaolin Gongfu of China. In 2006 Rodale Books published Shi's own book, The Shaolin Workout: 28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior's Way.
Personal life
Shi has two children with his partner, Sophia Chang, a Korean-Canadian music promoter for Ol' Dirty BastardOl' Dirty Bastard
Russell Tyrone Jones was an American rapper and occasional producer, who went by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard or simply ODB...
, and the temple's then-manager, whom he met in 1995. Shi never took the Shaolin celibacy vows, as he entered the Shaolin Temple at the age of five. Explaining his eschewing of celibacy, Shi remarks, "I'm too handsome for that."